Trip To Indiana Causes Brief Reflection, Mostly About Making Fun of Steve

This weekend Andrew and I are headed to our college state of Indiana for a wedding of a Friend Who Hasn’t Read This Blog, Steve.  Steve was Andrew’s roommate in college, and lived in my Chicago neighborhood, so we both know him well enough to say that we never thought he’d get married.  This is a guy who tore his suit and broke both his iPhone and glasses at our wedding in a performance that his friends label as “standard.”  We are happy for Steve, and probably just as surprised as he is about the whole event.  I can’t wait to see this go down.

I didn’t do a ton of reading when I lived in Indiana due to a strenuous schedule of attending a class or two a few times a week and being the dead-worst member of an unsuccessful comedy group.  Where was I to find the time?  Nevertheless, as I head back to Indiana and reflect on my college reading days, two biggies come to mind:

• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand is an all-time favorite, and a book that I read for some sort of ethics class that I certainly wouldn’t remember if it wasn’t for loving this book so much.  I have no idea why I chose it out of the selection of books available since it was probably 3x as long as any other option.  When it came to academia I had a minimalist attitude, but in this case devoured that big fat book in 3 days.  I believe my paper on the book started with, “So get this… I actually read this whole freakin’ book, even though it was for school.”
• She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb.  Both of these books are awesome, and I think of them whenever I hear Guster’s Lost and Gone Forever album, which I played on repeat for approximately two years.  I was SO excited when his new book The Hour I First Believed came out a decade later and it was a total disappointment.  Just like Guster’s follow up albums.

Just like my time living in Indiana, I will probably read a bit on the plane but not much during my stay.  I really want to get back to my core Hoosier competencies – drinking, bad dancing, and making fun of Steve.